“According to Google, it uses algorithms to evaluate hundreds of factors including user experience and how many other prominent sites link to a page... the articles that were the basis for Trump's claim of rigging ignored the fact that Google's most fundamental interest is returning search results that users find helpful, because that's how it gets them to come back. It does that, in part, by prioritizing results from trusted news outlets with large audiences.”

CNN

“As ridiculous and potentially dangerous [as] it is for Trump to make policy based on a single flawed news report he saw on TV... there is a legitimate concern about how Google's search algorithm works... If a story isn't promoted on Google, there's a good chance you won't see it or hear about it.

Business Insider

“There is no natural or neutral selection of news sources that will make all users happy. Being suspicious of claims that a particular order of importance is somehow natural—especially an importance that is derived from Delphic black box like the Google ranking algorithm—is not a conspiracy theory, it is sensible skepticism.”

Slate

The right asserts that, intentionally or not, Google and the other tech giants are biased against conservatives.

“Just over a year ago, in June 2017, the European Union fined the company $2.7 billion for... bias in its search algorithms... all the Trump-bashers who were suggesting Google would never, ever put its thumb on the scale seem to have ignored at least one elephant in the room.”

Of particular concern is the lack of transparency: a columnist for the New York Post recently had one of her articles taken down on Facebook. It reappeared after she complained, but “no one told me why it was taken down. No one told me why the piece suddenly reappeared with no explanation of what had happened.”

Others point to disclaimers that have been added to certain topics, such as global warming. “Extra information sounds helpful. But when social media platforms only pick certain politically disfavored positions to add Wiki links to, they skew debate.”

Some, however, suggest that “perhaps platforms fitting a particular legal definition should be regulated as public utilities. After all, Federal Express doesn’t refuse to deliver packages to the National Review office on the ground that they may contain conservative communications, and telephone companies haven’t tried to cut off connections when two conservatives are talking. Why should Facebook, Twitter and YouTube be permitted to engage in political discrimination?”